August 29, 2019

After the privacy
hell-hole that was Windows 10 circa 2017-ish, you’re doing better, the Dutch
Data Protection Authority (DPA) told
Microsoft on Tuesday, but you still aren’t legally kosher, privacy-wise.

A very quick
recap: Users howled. Regulators scowled. Microsoft tweaked in 2017. The DPA
investigated those tweaks. The upshot of its investigation: the DPA has asked
the Irish privacy regulator – the Irish Data Protection Commission, DPC – to
re-investigate the privacy of Windows users.

What a long,
strange privacy trip it’s been

A recap with more
flesh on its bones: in 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10. From the get-go,
France’s privacy watchdog – the National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) –
had concerns about the operating system’s processing of personal data through
telemetry.

After conducting
tests, CNIL determined that there were plenty of reasons to think that
Microsoft wasn’t compliant with the French Data
Protection Act. In July 2016, it gave Microsoft three
months to fix Windows 10 security and privacy.

If so, they were
wrong. On 26 August 2019, another update was released for the four-week-old iOS
12.4 in the form of iOS
12.4.1.

Apple doesn’t
describe this as an ‘emergency’ patch – though as it addresses a serious
vulnerability, it’s hard to interpret it as being anything else.

Why the rush?
This is where it gets awkward for Apple. Version 12.4.1 closes
a jailbreaking hole, which we delved into in some detail last week.

The short
version

Originally
patched in iOS 12.3 in May 2019 after being revealed by Google Project Zero
researcher Ned Williamson as the ‘Sock Puppet’ exploit (CVE-2019-8605), the
arrival of iOS 12.4 in July inadvertently undid that fix.

A researcher
known as Pwn20wnd subsequently released a follow-up jailbreak exploit dubbed
‘unc0ver’ on 18 August 2019 which jailbroke some Apple iOS devices.

In other words,
Apple fixed the flaw, accidentally unfixed it, and with the appearance of a
jailbreak had to rush out iOS 12.4.1 to re-fix it for a second time.

“It is not
letting me vote for who I want to vote for,” a Mississippi voter said in a
video that shows him repeatedly pushing a button on an electronic
touch-screen voting machine that keeps switching his vote to another candidate.

On Tuesday
morning, the date of Mississippi’s Republican primary election for governor,
the video was posted to Twitter…

…and to Facebook
by user Sally Kate Walker, who wrote this as a caption:

Ummmm … seems
legit, Mississippi.

Walker said in a
comment that the incident happened in Oxford, Miss., in Lafayette County. A
local paper, the Clarion
Ledger, reported that as of Tuesday night, there were at least three
reports confirmed by state elections officials of voting machines in two
counties changing voters’ selections in the state’s GOP governor primary
runoff.

The machines were
switching voters’ selections from Bill Waller Jr.- a former Supreme Court Chief
justice – to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. Waller’s campaign told the Clarion Ledger it
also received reports of misbehaving voter machines in at least seven other
counties.

ACS

Centrally located in Winter Haven, we serve residential and business clients in and around Polk County.

9 Camellia Drive
Winter Haven, FL 33880863-229-4244

Our Promise to You

Plain language, no tech-talk

We will never try to over-sell you a product you don't need.

Advanced Computer Services of Central Florida is your local, hometown computer service and repair company that can do more than just fix your PC. We offer highly skilled professionals who can be counted on to give you sound advice on upgrades, software and hardware, commercial & residential networks, hardwire or secure wireless.